New this week
Android Police
Privacy fans using Firefox Relay may soon be able to farm phone numbers
Android Police
2 min read · Sep 17th · Firefox Relay won't just be for setting up fake email addresses soon — you'll be able to farm phone numbers, too · Shared by 63
The Intercept
Facebook Engineers: We Have No Idea Where We Keep All Your Personal Data
The Intercept
4 min read · Sep 7th · In a discovery hearing, two veteran Facebook engineers told the court that the company doesn’t keep track of all your personal data. · Shared by 47, including Cory Doctorow, Lynn Cherny, Thomas Pleil, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Marsha Collier, Carla Gentry, Claudia Sommer, Angie Jones, Mac McCann
Gothamist
MTA to install 2 surveillance cameras on every subway car
Gothamist
2 min read · Sep 20th · The 13,000 cameras, which cost a total of $5.5 million, will be installed on 6,455 subway cars over the next three years. · Shared by 8, including ACLU
mtpr.org
As facial recognition arrives in schools, Montana enters uncharted territory
mtpr.org
4 min read · Sep 22nd · Facial recognition technology has been put into at least one school district in Montana. The surveillance, characterized as a safety tool, is in use as policy makers in Montana debate how to regulate… · Shared by 5
Lifehacker
Tile's Anti-AirTags Are a Safer Way to Track Your Items
Lifehacker
2 min read · Sep 21st · Tile's latest tracker is the opposite of its traditional devices and AirTags. · Shared by 7
The New York Times
‘They Are Watching’: Inside Russia’s Vast Surveillance State
The New York Times
~16 min read · Sep 22nd · A cache of nearly 160,000 files from Russia’s powerful internet regulator provides a rare glimpse inside Vladimir V. Putin’s digital crackdown. · Shared by 42, including Emma Best 🏳️🌈🏴, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Melissa Fach 🇺🇦, Josep M. Ganyet
Mashable
Lawsuits against Meta claim its apps track users despite Apple's rules
Mashable
1 min read · Sep 22nd · Researcher says Facebook and Instagram for iOS can track anything you do on any website. · Shared by 45
WIRED
The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps
WIRED
2 min read · Sep 22nd · Churches are using invasive phone-monitoring tech to discourage “sinful” behavior. Some software is seeing more than congregants realize. · Shared by 52, including Brian D. Earp, Ph.D., Chris Heilmann, wil shipley, Backchannel
EFF
What is Fog Data Science? Why is the Surveillance Company so Dangerous?
EFF
5 min read · Sep 1st · An EFF investigation of public records acquired from dozens of state and local law enforcement agencies has uncovered a widely-used mass surveillance technology. Americans are accustomed to hearing… · Shared by 23, including Josep M. Ganyet
WIRED
The Shaky Future of a Post-Roe Federal Privacy Law
WIRED
2 min read · Sep 15th · The American Data Privacy and Protection Act could protect people across the country. But first, it has to get past Nancy Pelosi. · Shared by 12, including Backchannel
HuffPost
How To Wipe Your Personal Information From The Internet
HuffPost
4 min read · Sep 19th · Data broker sites like Spokeo, MyLife and Whitepages are constantly scraping the web to build a profile on you and sell it. Here's what to do. · Shared by 27
WIRED
How to Use DuckDuckGo’s Privacy-First Email Service
WIRED
1 min read · Sep 18th · Tired of advertisers spying on your private communications? This beta promises to kick tracking technology to the curb. · Shared by 77, including Carissa Véliz, Backchannel
The New York Times
TikTok Browser Can Track Users’ Keystrokes, According to New Research
The New York Times
3 min read · Aug 19th · In the web browser used within the TikTok app, supplementary code lets the company track every character typed by users. The company said the capability was for troubleshooting. · Shared by 127, including Nils Hitze, Dirk von Gehlen, Craig Brown, PhD, Dan Gillmor, Mathew Ingram, ipfconline, Kirk Borne, Brian Solis, Scott Galloway, Jane Manchun Wong
Reuters
Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
Reuters
Sep 20th · Germany's general data retention law violates EU law, Europe's top court ruled on Tuesday, dealing a blow to member states banking on blanket data collection to fight crime and safeguard national security. · Shared by 15
The New York Times
Clearview AI, Used by Police to Find Criminals, Now in Public Defenders’ Hands
The New York Times
~11 min read · Sep 18th · After a Florida man was accused of vehicular homicide, his lawyer used Clearview AI’s facial recognition software to prove his innocence. But other defense lawyers say Clearview’s offer rings hollow. · Shared by 33, including Kashmir Hill, Nicolas Babin, Fabio Chiusi, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer
3quarksdaily.com
Now your Roomba is spying on you as well
3quarksdaily.com
4 min read · Sep 15th · by Sarah Firisen About eight years ago, I was in downtown Manhattan and went into a Warby Parker store, an eyewear retailer. I didn’t post anything on social media about it, but I did have location… · Shared by 112, including Thomas Pleil
Recently popular
driesdepoorter.be
The Follower
driesdepoorter.be
Sep 12th · Using open cameras and AI to find how an Instagram photo is taken. Project by Dries Depoorter. · Shared by 255, including Kenneth Kalmer, Stefan Plattner, Massimo Banzi, Tactical Tech, Stef Walter, Dr. Alec Couros, Oliver Raduner, Bas Grasmayer, Paul Kedrosky, Ajit Pai, Konrad Weber
Failed Architecture
Smart Streetlights are Casting a Long Shadow Over Our Cities
Failed Architecture
10 min read · Sep 6th · Major cities across the US are introducing smart streetlights with the promise they'll provide safer and more sustainable public spaces. But behind th... · Shared by 219
The New York Times
TikTok Browser Can Track Users’ Keystrokes, According to New Research
The New York Times
3 min read · Aug 19th · In the web browser used within the TikTok app, supplementary code lets the company track every character typed by users. The company said the capability was for troubleshooting. · Shared by 127, including Nils Hitze, Dirk von Gehlen, Craig Brown, PhD, Dan Gillmor, Mathew Ingram, ipfconline, Kirk Borne, Brian Solis, Scott Galloway, Jane Manchun Wong
3quarksdaily.com
Now your Roomba is spying on you as well
3quarksdaily.com
4 min read · Sep 15th · by Sarah Firisen About eight years ago, I was in downtown Manhattan and went into a Warby Parker store, an eyewear retailer. I didn’t post anything on social media about it, but I did have location… · Shared by 112, including Thomas Pleil
WIRED
Apple’s Killing the Password. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
WIRED
3 min read · Sep 7th · With iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple is introducing passkeys—a more convenient and secure alternative to passwords. · Shared by 105, including 🌴Marc Averitt🌴, Backchannel, Howard Getson, Theodora (Theo) Lau - 劉䂀曼 🌻, Thomas Pleil
The Associated Press
Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’
The Associated Press
~13 min read · Sep 1st · Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power… · Shared by 105, including Fern, Joe Germuska, Howard Getson, Wesley Fryer, Ph.D. 🌎🎙🚀 (he/him), Yann “shalf@mastodon.social” Heurtaux 不停, Tactical Tech, Joscha Bach
VICE
Facebook Engineers Admit They Don’t Know What They Do With Your Data
VICE
3 min read · Sep 7th · In a court hearing, a Facebook engineer said Facebook’s engineering culture is “terrifying.” · Shared by 90, including Mike Butcher🇬🇧🇪🇺, Matt Navarra, John Battelle
Vox
You’re being tracked through your email. Here’s how to stop it.
Vox
7 min read · Sep 3rd · It’s time to turn off those secret email read receipts. · Shared by 88, including Howard Getson
Ars Technica
DuckDuckGo now offers anti-tracking email service to everyone
Ars Technica
2 min read · Aug 25th · They're totally cool with you giving their emails out to spammy companies. · Shared by 81, including Tactical Tech
EFF
Inside Fog Data Science, the Secretive Company Selling Mass Surveillance to Local Police
EFF
~18 min read · Sep 1st · A data broker has been selling raw location data about individual people to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, EFF has learned. This personal data isn’t gathered from cell phone… · Shared by 80, including John Koetsier
All-time favorites
VICE
Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware
VICE
Summary · ~11 min read · From 2017 · A dive into the thriving black market of John Deere tractor hacking. · Shared by 4164, including Ryan Boren, getAbstract, Michael Duergner, Damien Van Achter, Helmi, Florian Hanke 🍎, Antonio Ramos, Parin Vachhani, Matthew Turland, Thomas Power, Markus Merz, Björn Ognibeni, Philipp Ebneter, Andrea Desiato, ₵BZ, Stowe Boyd, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯🕶, Nils Hitze, janfsauer, Faik Ersoy
Gizmodo
How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You've Ever Met
Gizmodo
9 min read · From 2017 · In real life, in the natural course of conversation, it is not uncommon to talk about a person you may know. You meet someone and say, “I’m from Sarasota,” and they say, “Oh, I have a grandparent in Sarasota,” and they tell you where they live and their name, and you may or may not recognize them.
· Shared by 711, including Mike Butcher🇬🇧🇪🇺, Liv 😷, Thomas Pleil, Esther Schindler, Jane, Stephanie A Kowalski, Ian Lurie 🇺🇦, Martin Stabe, Mark Kaigwa, Mathew Ingram, Matt Navarra, Dominik Grolimund, Oriol Farré, Ron McIntyre, Adrian Zumbrunnen, Kashmir Hill, Chris Messina, Markus Maurer, Nicolas Berg, Ralph Hutter
The Guardian
Revealed: leak uncovers global abuse of cyber surveillance weapon
The Guardian
9 min read · 2021-07-18 · Spyware sold to authoritarian regimes used to target activists, politicians and journalists, data suggests · Shared by 706, including Tim Copeland, Alex Tabarrok, Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Tara Imani, AIA NCIDQ ASID, Chris Heilmann, hakan, David Ndii, Carl Zimmer, zooko❤ⓩ🛡🦓🦓🦓, Maarten Lambrechts, Sascha Venohr, Privacy Matters 🇬🇧🇮🇪🇪🇺🌻, Thomas Power, Vinny Lingham, Steve Faulkner, Dr. Jeffrey Guterman, Carissa Véliz, Ian Schlakman, John Koetsier
The Atlantic
China Is the First Surveillance Superpower
The Atlantic
Summary · 20+ min read · From 2020 · Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control—and he’s exporting this technology to regimes around the globe. · Shared by 675, including Bob E. Hayes, Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦, Brian D. Earp, Ph.D., Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Evan Selinger, Anita Leirfall, Nir Eyal, Paul Roetzer, hardmaru, Oniropolis, Marvin “Polymath but really Just Generalist” Liao, Neeraj K. Agrawal, Nigel Warburton 🇺🇦 #Abolishthemonarchy, Ed Yong, zeynep tufekci, Paolo Pedercini, Gerd Leonhard, Sam Harris, Joss Fong, Brian Roemmele
The New York Times
What Happens When Our Faces Are Tracked Everywhere We Go?
The New York Times
20+ min read · 2021-03-18 · When a secretive start-up scraped the internet to build a facial-recognition tool, it tested a legal and ethical limit — and blew the future of privacy in America wide open. · Shared by 657, including Nick Lüthi, 🟣 Antonio Vieira Santos #FutureOfWork #InnoTrans2, Ste Davies, Gerry Gaffney, Kashmir Hill, almagentia369, Mathew Ingram, jean marc manach, Nicolas Babin, Matthew Green, Kevin Roose, Evan Selinger, Cade Metz, zach lieberman, Margaret Sullivan, Jonathan Kogan, Golan Levin, Theodora (Theo) Lau - 劉䂀曼 🌻, Brian Roemmele, BenYT
Fast Company
Exclusive: Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web
Fast Company
5 min read · From 2018 · With an ambitious decentralized platform, the father of the web hopes it’s game on for corporate tech giants like Facebook and Google. · Shared by 596, including Jeremiah Owyang | jowyang.eth, jowyang.sol, Gideonro, designshard, Brian Roemmele, Liliane Ferrari ™, Sir Lord Travis Wright, Web3 Speaker, Wesley Fryer, Ph.D. 🌎🎙🚀 (he/him), David Cohn, Korben, Mike Butcher🇬🇧🇪🇺, David Dias, Thomas Power, Marvin “Polymath but really Just Generalist” Liao, 🟣 Antonio Vieira Santos #FutureOfWork #InnoTrans2, Gerd Leonhard, MIT CSAIL, Klaus Eck, Howard Getson, Tristan Nitot 🌿🚲, jean marc manach
Guardian Tech
Internet privacy: the apps that protect you from your apps
Guardian Tech
8 min read · From 2020 · Worried about the data collected about you? A new generation of startups is making apps to put your privacy settings straight · Shared by 594, including Johannes Lenz, Katja Evertz, Mark Kaigwa, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Jansnet, Brian Ahier, Jane, Howard Getson, Marc R Gagné MAPP 🍁, Rob Go, Oliver Raduner, henrik, Faik Ersoy, Merkstatt, Joshua Walker, Matthias Lampe, Luca Like, Josep M. Ganyet, Jonathan Kogan, Christian Müller
signal.org
The Instagram ads Facebook won't show you
signal.org
1 min read · 2021-05-04 · Companies like Facebook aren’t building technology for you, they’re building technology for your data. They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility… · Shared by 590, including Eric Barker, IAPP, Kevin_Indig, David Walsh, Privacy Matters 🇬🇧🇮🇪🇪🇺🌻, Mark Kaigwa, Dr. Alec Couros, Richard Gutjahr, Eli Pariser 🏞📲, Aral Balkan, John Battelle, Rami Ismail (رامي), Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, T. Greer, Chaotic Goode, ツ, emily bell, 🌏🔎Leigh Alexander 🐬💿✨, Matt Navarra, Amanda Webb - Digital Marketer 👩💻
Bloomberg
Palantir Knows Everything About You
Bloomberg
Summary · 20+ min read · From 2018 · Facebook may currently be the black sheep when it comes to privacy and data violations, but it isn’t the only company capable of watching every step you take. Bloomberg Businessweek writers Lizette Chapman, Jordan Robertson and Peter Waldman profile the big-data firm Palantir Technologies, which has evolved from helping the US government catch terrorists to assisting companies monitor their employees and helping law enforcement detect possible offenders. A common thread that runs through both companies is their desperate need to make money and please investors – which, as it turns out, is at odds with protecting people’s privacy. · Shared by 588, including Howard Getson, Dan Gillmor, Data Science Renee, Prof Michael E. Mann, Oliver Reichenstein, Hilary Mason, Jane, Thomas Power, Aleyda Solis 🇺🇦, John Battelle, Klaus Eck, Richard Gutjahr, Marc R Gagné MAPP 🍁, Hannes Grassegger, Adrienne Fichter, Mike Butcher🇬🇧🇪🇺, Noely ⚡️🏐, Herbert Bay, Nicolas Granatino 🌻, Claudia Sommer
